Napoles family stashed money in US, documents show

by ABS-CBNnews.com

September 3, 2013

MANILA – Even as the Court of Appeals has frozen more than 400 bank accounts and insurance policies linked to businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles, her family has money stashed in US banks, according to documents from a pork scam whistleblower. One account at Wells Fargo in Irvine, California supposedly belongs to the businesswoman’s daughter Jo Christine Napoles, according to the documents given to ABS-CBN News by Benhur Luy.

Napoles’ fugitive brother Reynald Lim supposedly has an account at the Bank of America in San Diego, California, while Jose Lim has one at Wells Fargo in Pasadena, California,

Another account at Wells Fargo in Orange County allegedly belongs to Western Investment Corp., a company said to be owned by the Napoles family.

“Alexis,” another whistleblower, claimed that a portion of the pork barrel of lawmakers that ended up in bogus foundations set up by Napoles went to those offshore accounts. Alexis is a former employee of Napoles’ JLN Corp.

“Ang ginagawa namin, mula sa PDAF ng mga congressman napunta sa NGOs na peke iyong pera tapos pinambibili namin ng dollar para dalhin sa [United] States, [via] bank transfer,” she said.

She said this large amount of money was the reason why the Napoleses were able to buy a hotel in California worth $7 million and a $2 million unit at the Ritz Carlton in Los Angeles “Iyung galing NGO, dinadala nila sa States para itago iyong iba nilang yaman. Sobra-sobra na kasi dito,” Alexis said.

The whistleblowers said the Philippine government should act now to have the alleged foreign bank accounts of the Napoleses frozen.

On Tuesday, another witness in the so-called P10-billion pork barrel scam arrived from Hong Kong. The new witness is a former household helper of the Napoles family. “Nagulat ako, sabi milyon-milyon piso ako daw presidente ng foundation eh katulong lang ako ni Madame Janet. Bakit ako dinadamay eh P9,000 lang suweldo ko sa kanya,” said “Kara”.

With more witnesses against Napoles coming forward, several other employees of JLN Corp have expressed their intent to follow suit. – ANC